Throughout the years, numerous proposals have been advanced for providing the sportsman, outdoor-hiker or camper, military and similar users with a multi-function cot and protective covering or tent that can, in collapsed form, be carried on the back, assembled for use, and then repacked for further carrying.
While features of light weight, compactness and simple assembly have long been sought, the prior art approaches have involved serious disadvantages which the present invention admirably overcomes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,464,875, for example, a combination tent, hammock and pack sack is disclosed wherein the pack sack material itself converts into the hammock, the tent material is separate and carried in the pack sack, limiting the available backpack space, and a plurality of loose fixtures and components is required for a rather complicated assembly, and with the requirement of external guy wires and stakes for support. The system of U.S. Pat. No. 3,619,827 proposes to store the tent material within the cot frame, but again requires loose and telescoping frame sections for assembly, and also requires guy ropes for stability. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,360, a portable foldable cot frame may be hand or back carried, with tent fabric carried externally in a separate backpack, and the metal parts bearing against the user's back when so carried. While the pack frame-bed of U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,495 avoids some of the metal part abrasion against the back, the bed and cover material are carried within the pack, destroying its carrying space for other products, and the front and rear parts of the pack serve as the front and rear supports of the tent and bed. A combination light weight pack frame (for a separate backpack)-cot-and tent support is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,005, as another example, wherein one frame section is provided for carrying the separate pack, tent material and cot material, and a second hinged frame opens to form the cot support.
The present invention is directed to obviating the complexity of these prior systems, their separate parts, their lack of incorporation of the complete unincumbered-space backpack, cot and tent in a single assembly, and the need for external guy or other supports or external tent support systems.